Văn Tiến Dũng

In this Vietnamese name, the family name is Văn, but is often simplified to Van in English-language text. According to Vietnamese custom, this person should properly be referred to by the given nameDũng.

Văn Tiến Dũng (2 May 1917 – 17 March 2002), born Co Nhue commune, Từ Liêm District, Hanoi, was a Vietnamese general in the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), PAVN chief of staff (1954–74); PAVN commander in chief (1974–80); and Socialist Republic of Vietnam defense minister (1980–86). He was the only member of North Vietnam's political elite who was of peasant origin. He joined the communist Lao Dong Party in 1936, escaped from a French prison in 1944, and fought against the Japanese occupation force during the Second World War. August 1945, he directed the armed forces to seize power in the province of Hòa Bình, Ninh Bình and Thanh Hóa.

During the First Indochina War, Dũng rose to become General Võ Nguyên Giáp's chief of staff during the victorious siege of Điện Biên Phủ in 1954. For the next twenty years, his military reputation in North Vietnam was second only to Giáp's. He commanded the vital Tri-Thien-Hue Front during the 1972 Easter Offensive, replacing his mentor as PAVN commander in chief in 1974, when the Vietnam War against the Americans and South Vietnamese evolved from a guerrilla struggle to more conventional forms.[citation needed]